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EMIGRATION TO LIBERIA. 



Report of the standing Committee on Emigration of 
the Board of Directors of the American Coloniza- 
tion Society, unanimously adopted January 20. 1885. 



The times are changed ! Wondrous events combine to turn the 
world's thought at this moment to the ••Dark Continent.** The 
Congo is drawing to itself the activities of nations as never before 
since the pyramids were built. 

As a spider builds his web, beginning with a single thread here and 
there, attaching the ends to various objects, so does a power in man- 
kind's history weave the texture of human vicissitude. It is a mar- 
velous chapter in this human story which has been written in Amer- 
ica. Slaves torn from home and kindred were forced into this country 
by cruel European greed. From these slaves, then, the most miser- 
able, have sprung nearly seven millions of the colored race, long held 
here in bondage, but at the same time brought into contact with 
Christian civilization, finally emancipated, enfranchised, and begin- 
ning to be educated. This is one thread. 

About seventy years ago a few philanthropists, with far-seeing vis- 
ion, organized for the purpose of creating a home on the Western coast 
of Africa for such of these people as could and would return to the 
Fatherland. The Republic of Liberia has been the result. There is 
now a focus of light from which the rays may spread across the whole 
breadth of that long darkness. This is another thread. 

England, the same Power that so long winked at i; the middle pas- 
sage " while the forefathers were dragged across the seas a.m bound 
in chains in her colonies here, is to-day hovering on the northwestern 
borders of the infant nation, having within two years past torn from 
its grasp a large territory, and, if all signs do not fail, is preparing to 
repeat the act on the southeast borders. Here is a strip of country 
ready for occupation, and inviting immigrants to come and possess 
the virgin soil, with all the richness of its productions. This is another 
thread. 

Social and political equality, however fair in name and theory, is 
difficult in practice as between races so distinct as African and Cau- 
casian. Twenty years of trial here has been sufficient to convince 
large numbers of the colored people who at first spurned the idea of 



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going to Africa that their proper home is there, and there the fitting 
field for working out their destiny. This is another thread. And so 
the loom of Providence weaves on ! Amazing threads they all are, 
but the pattern is from an Omnipotent hand ! 

Here stands the old Colonization Society alive to-day, while many 
thought it dead, and as yet about the only ear to listen at the tele- 
phone call and gather up the cry which comes from all parts of the 
land where these African people dwell; and the cry is louder and 
more intense and multitudinous month by month. Consider the ap- 
peals which roll in upon the Society almost every day in proof of the 
singular truth. The last month illustrates what has been going on for 
some time past, but now apparently more earnestly than ever : 

December 1st, 1884, Landsford, S. C, one of them writes : Tell us 
how to get to Liberia — to Africa; our people are sick and tired of this 
country, and want to go home ; 500 men and women of whom I am 
the teacher are ready to go at once. 

December 8th, 1884, Denison, Texas, another writes : I wrote you 
about seven years ago, and received a few papers. The mass of our 
people are poorer than they were eight years' ago. We want now to 
go to Africa. What is the latest news ? Can you tell us all about it? 
What can you do for sending us? How and when can we get there, 
and what are the conditions? An early answer will confer a favor 
44 on a great crowd of us." 

We do not give the exact language, but the substance. 

December 12th, 1884, from the same place, another writes : A great 
many of us are making preparations to go to Liberia, and we want 
direct information in regard to the whole affair. He asks these ques- 
tions : 

1st. How many families must we collect before we can be sent? 
2d. Can we go on shipboard at Galveston ? 
3d. Do we send any money, and to whom? 

The same day, Darlington, S. C, J. P. Brockenton, pastor of 
Macedonia Baptist Church, of more than 1,000 members, 4S years 
old, with wife and children, writes, applying f or passage to Liberia. 
From his own accounts he must be an important man. He is Presi- 
dent of the South Carolina State Baptist Convention, Moderator of 
the District Association, Trustee of the free School Board of Darling- 
ton County, and Life Director of the Home Mission Society. He 
wants to go to Africa, he says— 

1st. Because I want to continue my good work for the Master. 

2d. Because I think my Christian influence is more needed there 
than here. 

3d. Because the harvest in Africa is great, but the laborers are few. 



MAR 14 1916 



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4th. Because nay children are trained teachers or mechanics, and 
as such can assist in building up our Fatherland, 

6th. Because my condition as a man will be better established and 
my work as a minister better appreciated. 

Pretty sound and sensible reasons. He says he is poor, and if the 
Society can aid him he will be thankful. 

December 21st, 1884, Waco, Texas, a correspondent, who is a super- 
intendent, writes : We have organized a Bureau of Home and Foreign 
Missions in our Baptist State Convention. [The Baptists appear to 
be plentiful.] They are collecting money to send two messengers to 
Liberia to obtain information. He is now making up a colony to 
leave for Liberia in 1880. It will be from 1,500 to 2,000 strong. If 
they can get sufficient information from the American Colonization 
Society they will not send the two messengers. .He says we may see 
what they are doing in the South to get to the Fatherland. He wants 
all kinds of information about the matter. He says they are raising 
about $500 per month ; that, it costs the Society $100 per head to take 
them out and support them for six months. " I mean business. If 
we come to you 2,000 strong, can't you make it less than that? Help 
us all you can, and let me know at once how many cau go in one ship 
at a time." 

December 24th, 1884, one writes again from Denison, Texas : 
There are 62 already in our company. What are your lowest terms? 
We have 35 farmers, 4 school-teachers, 1 cabinet-maker, 6 ministers, 
4 hotel and steamboat cooks, 2 brick-makers, 4 blacksmiths, 4 carpen- 
ters, 2 well-diggers, and a good many laborers. Please don't get 
impatient at our asking questions, for we want to be all right when 
we get to the ship. 

December 27th, 1884, Homer, Louisiana, another writes, saying he 
seeks a home for a poor black man ; he wants to know all about Libe- 
ria ; he wants to get where he can be free ; says he is not free here 
by a long ways. What will it take to put me and my wife over? 

December 31st, 1884, from Darlington, S. C, again from out- 
friend Brockenton, who now signs himself Secretary of the Club. He 
acknowledges receipt of books, papers, &c. Says he can't be ready 
to go till October; that a colony will go with him. He gives quite 
a description of the personnel of his colony ; says they expect to 
be organized into a church before sailing. He predicts great good 
from this company. They are in all 43 persons, with more to be 
added. 

The same day, from Lynchburg, S. C, a bright man writes of the 
progress the colored people are making there and elsewhere in the 
South for emigration. He says there is the greatest unrest among 
them ever known. Large numbers are going to the West, but the 
best portion are preparing to make their way to Liberia. The Clar- 



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endon Club wants information, and he writes at their request. He 
says they will plant large crops of cotton, so as to raise money in the 
fall. He is Secretary of the Clarendon and Williamsburg Clubs. He 
is without means to travel as he wishes, to stimulate the people ; and 
in view of this, wants circulars and documents from us to spread 

ABROAD. 

The same day. from Waco, Texas, another writes that the people of 
his county wish to send him to Liberia to bring back a report of the 
land. He wants to know if he can go. He says the condition of his 
people is deplorable ; that he learns that a whole county of them are 
going to Kansas; that hundreds are coming from North Carolina to 
Arkansas — out of the pan, into the fire. What do horses and cows 
cost in Liberia? Could you send Over my piano? My house is worth 
$1,000; I was oftered $600 for it. He wants to sell and get away ; 
says himself and wife are at our service if we can make any use of 
them. 

January 1st, 1885, Chambersburg, Pa., a colored woman writes: 
We are now really preparing to leave this country. She has lost a 
former letter, and wants to hear again ; says there are eight of them 
ready to go in May. " Will they be crowded out ? " " We have been 
a long time getting ready, but the Spirit says, Go! and we must 
abide God's will." Several other families wish to go, especially one 
that comes from Alabama, where times are hard for colored people. 

January 3d, 18S5, Kansas City. Mo., a prudent man writes : "Would 
I be safe to start for Liberia with 3100 and tive children? A great many 
people here would be glad to go, but they have no information. 1 am 
a kalsominer by trade. "Would I be of. any use when I get there? 

The same day, from Denison, Texas, a sharp man writes, asking 
for full information about emigration to Liberia. He and several 
others wish to go there. He says they "are very well equipped, with 
wealth and literature enough to get there and straighten up and 
straighten out. Write soon, and let us know." 

January 7th, 1885, Forestville, X. C another writes that he is 
making preparation to go to Liberia. He sees so many colored people 
awaking to the project of going, because of their oppressions in this 
country. " We want to reach Africa, the home of the free. Is there 
any chance for me ? " ■ . 

Such is the burden of the cry from all quarters of the land. What 
does it mean? Our Society has absolutely done nothing to awaken 
this intense longing for Africa among the colored people. No means 
have been employed by us to stir up so deep and general a feeling, 
unless our circulars and documents for the spread of information may 
have contributed to it ; otherwise, not a whisper from us has been 
heard. The cry is spontaneous. One of the correspondents above 



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cited seems to have expressed the secret — "The Spirit says, Go!" 
What other conclusion can we reach? God's hand is in it, weaving 
the web of His Providence for Africa. 

But we would not just now encourage a wholesale exodus. The 
vast preparation must no doubt be gradual, as all great things are. 
In the ancient exodus from Africa the people were held for forty 
years in the wilderness prior to their possession of the Promised 
Land. The first emigrants to Liberia were sent by t^his Society in 
1820. and we have not failed to send some each year since. The last 
company of forty-seven was sent last October — in all nearly 16,000 
persons, exclusive of 5,722 recaptured Africans— at the cost of 
$3,000,000 — the munificent gift of American Christian philanthropy. 
At the present time there are on the soil of Liberia about 25,000 souls, 
comprising the American immigrants and their children, with the recap- 
tured Africans who have settled there, and one million of the native 
population, enjoying the advantages of the Republic and amenable to 
its laws, while remoter tribes are pressing down towards the infant 
Republic as to a centre of brighter hope. There is a coast-line of 500 
miles — extending indefinitely inland. This was recently diminished 
40 miles by the arbitrary power of England; and about the same ex- 
tent is coming into dispute on the southeast. It is believed that Libe- 
ria could now absorb and assimilate 10,000 persons, especially immi- 
grants from the mother Republic versed in the customs, manners, 
and laws of a Republican Christian Government. If this popula- 
tion could be transferred to Liberia in the next two years it would 
probably settle the boundary question now in dispute, besides being 
of incalculable advantage in many other ways. 

They would hardly be missed among us out of a colored population 
rapidly multiplying, and which by natural increase has nearly doubled 
during the last score of years, but immense good might flow through 
them to Liberia and the whole continent. 

That many are waking up to this idea, and are ready to leave 
this country for the land of their forefathers, is evinced, as we have 
seen, from the constantly-increasing applications for aid to this end. 
These come in upon us from all quarters and through ail channels — 
through the correspondence of private individuals, members and of- 
ficers of churches, clubs, and various organizations, and even through 
Government Departments and through the Christian agencies of our 
great commercial cities. 

The one fact we would emphasize is this : The only hope of lifting 
Africa up to continental equality and prominence lies not merely in 
National diplomacy and the jealousy of States, nor in the greed of 
misers, nor in the craft of unprincipled traders and sharpers who 
pour out upon the soil, which their touch pollutes, all the vices and 
wrongs and refuse of modern civilization, but it is mainly in the 



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Christian colony, which is in some sense a Christian mission among 
stranger tribes of men. This is the voice of history — certainly of 
modern history. America was redeemed at last by the Christian pil- 
grims of Europe, who imbued its growing life with the spirit of Chris- 
tian civilization, and stamped upon its institutions the impress of 
morality and of Christian faith. Such a power as this is alone ade- 
quate to build another Republic like our own from the Atlantic to the 
Indian Oceans. 

It is a marvelous fact that now, simultaneously with the opening of 
that Continent, such a general desire among our colored people to go 
to it should spring up so intensely. What a wonderful thread this is 
in the stupendous web of Providence ! And into our hands the 
grand mission of opening Africa to the splendid realizations of the 
future is in a very special sense committed, since we are the only 
Nation on the face of the earth outside of Africa herself that has the 
fitting material in our colored population ; and all signs point to our 
duty in this respect. The times are ripe for a powerful onward 
movement in this direction. The two thrilling reports rendered by 
the Committee on Emigration — one of a year ago and one of the year 
preceding — were as a bugle blast, calling mankind to action. No form 
of words could be more eloquent or piercing than the language of 
those reports. They state the case to the American people with all 
the cogency of logic, the fire of poetry, and the pathos almost of in- 
spiration. They have been widely circulated; and this seed, so scat- 
tered, may yield — Heaven grant it — a rich and plentiful harvest. 

But at the opening of another year in the history of this Society 
we stand confronted with one great necessity, one specific work, 
which ought to be immediately taken up and accomplished ; this is, 
to put 10,000 of our choicest colored population into Liberia as soon 
as it is found to be practicable. It will cost a million dollars ! 

What are our resources— -what our means of doing it? The abund- 
ance of our own country, the thousands and millions of money in 
the hands of prosperous capitalists and churchmen, and the ever- 
plethoric Treasury of the Government itself. But how shall we 
open these might)'' coffers? What key can unlock our way to the 
hoarded treasure? We have tried commissioned agents, but the effort 
has been practically a failure. What, then, is left us ? 

1. Personal appeals to well-known rich philanthropists. 

2. Concise, comprehensive, pointed, specific appeals through the 
religious and secular press of the country. 

3. The sajne kind of appeal to the Christian clergy, and through 
them to the entire membership of the churches. 

4. An earnest, temperate, emphatic appeal to Congress and the Gov- 
ernment. They have loaned a million dollars to the New Orleans 



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Exposition. Great as that is or ought to be, is it any more influen- 
tial on the welfare of mankind than it would be for the same sum to 
secure the future of the daughter Republic, and through her the 
Christian civilization of the entire Continent? This would indeed be 
a glorious consummation ! Everything calls for it— everything incites 
to it. A million dollars in two years for the redemption of that vast 
territory with its hundred and fifty or two hundred millions of people — 
what a splendid golden thread would this be in the mighty loom of 
Providence; in this Divine pattern of human destiny; this august 
design of the Infinite Reason ; this lofty work of the hands of the 
Eternal ! 

B. SUNDERLAXD. 
CHARLES C. NOTT, 
JAMES SAUL, 

Committee. 

Washington, D. C, 

January 20t7i. 1885. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE OF 1884. 



The Committee on Emigration respectfully report : That the lapse 
of a year has made no change in the outlook of the American Colo- 
nization Society. 

We face the same old responsibilities. Me^i, are appealing to us for 
passage to Liberia ; and every ship from Liberia brings to us the 
prayer, ''Send out more emigrants.-' Why do we not heed these 
appeals wrung from human hearts by dire uecessities too sad for 
words? Why? Because another cry for help is not heeded — a long, 
earnest, almost despairing cry — the vain cry of this Society to Ameri- 
can Christians for their prayers and their money in this supreme hour 
of our need. W r e say to the African exiles among us : " Suppress 
your noble aspirations; suffer and die where you are, and transmit to 
your children woes that have cursed and crushed their fathers." We 
say to poor Liberia : "We cannot aid 3^011. Perish unbefriended ; let 
the light of your civilization and your Christianity go out forever." 
And we are compelled to say all this^ because there" are no hearts in 
Christian America to respond to our pleadings for the saddest, the 
most touching, and yet the most promising missionary venture of this 
century. 



We tell the philanthropists»and Christians of this land that in oni' 
day no holier cry for help has echoed through the night of human 
misery than the cry of the oppressed and outraged Negro. Last year 
the needs of our Society were urgent. We feel that they are more 
urgent to-day. The rapacity of England's commercial greed is de- 
stroying the Republic of Liberia. Some forty miles of her seaboard 
have been taken from her, and a larger and still more valuable part is 
threatened with speedy seizure by the same Power. And thus all 
that has been done on that Continent by our benevolence will soon be 
swallowed up. The African Republic will be a thing of the past — 
will live in history only as a dark reproach to American Christianity. 
There must be a revival of interest in this great cause — an awakened 
sense of obligation to the despised and unrewarded people whose 
right hands have helped to rear the colossal fabric of our material 
prosperity. The despondent heart of Liberia must be cheered by our 
sympathy. She must be strengthened by our benevolence. A strong 
public sentiment here must protest against the encroachments of Eng- 
land and arouse our own Government to a more bold and imperative 
policy in regard to the rights of the Nation's wards on the coast of 
Africa. 

If Christian men shall continue to regard this cause with the old 
cruel indifference, it will soon be too late to help our African fellow- 
citizens to free and happy homes in their Fatherland ; too late to dis- 
charge our solemn obligations to the people we have alreacty sent 
there, and too late to aid the grand enterprise of love for which tills 
old Society has lived and worked for sixty-seven years. 

Your Committee therefore renew the recommendation of the last 
report: "That this great cause be brought before the people and 
pressed upon their attention with renewed zeal by every possible 
agency within the reach of the Society's means." 

THOMAS G. ADDISON, 

Chairman. 



Contributions may be sent to Mr. William Coppinger, Secretary 
and Treasurer o f the American Colonization Society. Jl r ashington< D. C. 



